Category Archives: bailout

GM is shutting down Chevy Cruze production at its 6 million square foot Lordstown plant. And Reason says the billion dollar cost of steel and other tariffs might have something to do with it. Steel workers are an important part of the Trump base. So are autoworkers and 1400 of them are about to lose their jobs.

Trump Base

“The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!,” tweets Trump.

Kevin Williamson at NR says it was dumb to bail out GM in the first place. American carmakers can’t compete on sedans with the likes of Honda or Audi. But they’re good at making trucks and SUVs people like. They should have focused on that sector long ago, he says. But we “paid them not to.”

Electric cars too. NPR reports the government subsidies electric cars to the tune of a $7,500 tax credit for buyers.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf resigned on Wednesday and Elizabeth Warren finally got the scalp she wanted. Bank employees opened about two million unauthorized customer accounts on Chairman Stumpf’s watch. The scam led to bonuses for the employees and extra fees and overdraft charges for the unsuspecting customers.

Stumpf will get no severance package and he has forfeited $41 million in unvested equity. Also, the bank has fired 5,300 employees and agreed to pay a $185 million dollar fine.

Additionally the former CEO will be tied down naked in the desert over a termite hill.

I made up that last one. Stumpf’s not exactly losing the shirt off his back. He earned about $120 million during his career at Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo Thrived After 2008 Crisis

A WSJ editorial says that, despite the scandal, Stumpf has been “one of the most successful American CEOs of recent times:”

Our colleague Dennis Berman reports that in nine years he produced some $149 billion in profits and saw an increase in market cap of $124 billion. Wells Fargo tried to turn down the government’s rescue funds during the 2008 financial panic because it didn’t need the help, only to be forced by Treasury to take the money.

“Without a credible threat to walk out of the single currency, Greece was eventually forced to cave in, and accept punishing terms from the rest of the European Union that will push its economy even deeper into recession.” – Market Watch